This contribution takes a critical look at the newly built extension of the arts centre deSingel built by the Belgian architecture office Stéphane Beel Architecten. Floré & Notteboom pay particular attention to the building's claim to materialize the concept of an 'arts city'. They also analyse the discourse developed by deSingel in the months and years preceding the centre's opening. They conclude that the idea of an 'arts city' is perhaps to a lesser degree 'realised' through Beel's architecture than through the discourse attending to its construction.